A decade later, Facility for Rare Isotope Beams director can see the finish line

Michigan State University's Facility for Rare Isotope Beams is on track to be completed in 2021.
Lansing State Journal

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Inside MSU's Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, where the process of accelerating beams begins in the ion sources area. Here is where a sample element goes through a process to create beams that are sent into the linear accelerator.(Photo11: Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal)Buy Photo

EAST LANSING - A decade ago, Michigan State University defied expectations and beat out a national laboratory for the chance to design and build the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.

Some 400 scientists and engineers are now working inside the advanced nuclear research site, preparing it for the 1,400 researchers from around the globe who will one day conduct scientific experiments there.

Those researchers, part of the FRIB Users Organization, will come from more than 100 colleges and universities across the United States and 13 national labs, as well as 52 countries.

Thomas Glasmacher, FRIB laboratory director, said Wednesday the project is 86% completed, tracking for an early completion in 2021.

"FRIB is really important to MSU and the nation," he said. "Nuclear scientists have been dreaming about a facility like FRIB for 30 years, we've been planning one for 20 years, and it's now under construction for 10 years, and what's really gratifying is this is the year when we really can see the end, when we can see that FRIB will do what FRIB was meant to do."

Once completed, FRIB will give researchers the chance to work with more than 1,000 rare isotopes previously unavailable for study on Earth. The discoveries made inside the facility will have wide-ranging applications, Glasmacher said, pointing to medical imaging and homeland security as two areas that have benefited from nuclear science research.

Between now and FRIB's completion, scientists and engineers will install, calibrate and test technical components. In July, the first beams were accelerated to 1% of the energy they will reach when FRIB is completed.

Members of the public can tour FRIB and see hands-on demonstrations on Saturday, Aug. 18, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Some 4,000 attendees packed into FRIB and the nearby National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory during the last open house in 2016.

The U.S. Department of Energy is contributing $635.5 million toward the project, with the state of Michigan picking up around $94.5 million. MSU has also announced plans to invest an extra $35 million to further enhance FRIB's capabilities.

Inside MSU's Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, the process of accelerating beams begins in the ion sources area. Here is where a sample element goes through a process to create beams that are injected into the linear accelerator.(Photo11: Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal)

Contact RJ Wolcott at (517) 377-1026 or rwolcott@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @wolcottr.